Nuggets 104, Warriors 98: Preseason observations

The Nuggets defeated the Warriors 104-98 on Monday to go to 3-0 and stay undefeated in the preseason. Here are some game notes…

— Hamilton looked good once again but also reminded us that he is still somewhat of a rookie. He has so much talent. He can really stroke it, I’d say as well as anybody on the entire Nuggets roster. But he also makes bad decisions too frequently, which is really one of Karl’s pet peeves. Hamilton needs to stop driving into dead-end plays. He needs to understand when it’s the right time to pass, drive or shoot. It’s just like obeying traffic lights. There’s a system you must follow. When you do, everything work out fine. When you don’t, you get ticketed — or in Hamilton’s case, benched.

— McGee has been so disappointing — it’s mind-boggling. It truly is. And I don’t get it. Wasn’t he supposed to be working out with Hakeem Olajuwon for like, two weeks? I know it was a longer period of time than almost anybody who’s worked with him. Yet, McGee looks worse than when he arrived in Denver last winter. I don’t get it. Why? That’s what I’m trying to figure out here. Why is he playing so bad? And it’s not even bad; it’s just ill-advised, for lack of a better word. He’s not missing good shots; he’s taking bad ones, missing them horribly and then doing it all over again. He’s not learning from his mistakes. Maybe it’s something with preseason. He never played every remotely close to this bad last season with the Nuggets, so I’m thinking it’s some kind of a fad. Let’s hope I’m right.

— While we’re on the subject, it’s worth noting that the Nuggets are kind of a mess at the center position right now. Again, who knows what the deal is with McGee. Maybe he suddenly turns things around next game. But what if he doesn’t? What if last season was an anomaly? The Nuggets are then going to have an enormous amount of money wrapped up in a backup center, and while I like Koufos, I also realize that if you’re trying to win a championship without a superstar you need really good players at every position on the floor. Guys like Dwight Howard, Serge Ibaka and Pau Gasol are going to have a field day with Koufos in the Playoffs. McGee has the length and athleticism to at least mitigate some of the damage that premier bigs are sure to inflict upon the Nuggets next spring. That said, I am excited to see how Koufos is going to progress this year and wouldn’t mind seeing him receive a heavy dose of minutes as long as he proves to be worthy. I just hope McGee does the same.

— Corey Brewer has been the best player on the Nuggets roster in the preseason by a long shot. He’s brought it every game. And the crazy thing is: I still don’t understand how he does it. His defense is phenomenal — especially the way he plays the lanes — but his offense is just as good, if not better. If you give Brewer the ball and tell him to beat someone one-on-one, I don’t think he could score if you gave him fives separate attempts. But when he has other players to utilize, it’s like he turns into a basketball-scoring Energizer Bunny. He’s always moving, always finding the right place to be at the right time and although he doesn’t always shoot at an efficient clip, he almost always takes good shots and makes the right play. In other words, Brewer is a fantastic teammate. I’ve been one of Jordan Hamilton’s biggest supporters since he was drafted last summer, but even I can’t sit here and tell you he deserves to play over Corey Brewer right now.

— What I can tell you is that Julyan Stone is definitely better than Ben Uzoh and Anthony Carter. I know he’s hurt. I know his roster spot isn’t up for grabs anyways, but it’s still comforting knowing the Nuggets haven’t brought anybody into camp that’s had a significantly more accomplished career than Carter or Uzoh. It’s really too bad Stone is injured right now, as this would be the perfect time for Nuggets fans to see what his game is truly all about.

— Denver’s next game is at Portland on Wedensday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m. MST.

Andre Iguodala, F31 MIN | 2-9 FG | 5-6 FT | 3 REB | 7 AST | 10 PTS | +3It seems like Iguodala is still trying to figure out how to find a comfortable niche within the Nuggets offense and imprint his mark on this team. Of course, this should not be altogether surprising given that it was only his third game with his new teammates. His shot wasn’t falling in this game, but he did make a lot of heady plays which put his craftiness and smarts on display. But it’s difficult to grade him higher than a C when GSW’s starting guards combined to shoot 17-30 (.567) including 8-11 on 3-pointers (.727) for 46 points. This was the bleeding he was brought in to stop.

Danilo Gallinari, F30 MIN | 6-12 FG | 4-4 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 18 PTS | +4Gallinari had a solid all-around game, doing a little bit of everything. He did struggle with hanging onto the ball, turning it over five times, and went 2-7 from the arc (.286), but overall he played a fairly efficient game including some pretty solid defensive possessions versus David Lee on isos.

Kenneth Faried, F21 MIN | 3-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 8 REB | 0 AST | 8 PTS | +13David Lee flat out torched the Manimal in this game. Granted, there were some fairly sketchy touch fouls called on Faried, but Lee really was just breaking him down in the post. Against a team like the Warriors that can sharpshoot the 3, an inability to defend down low without double teaming is a real liability, and Kenneth will need to continue working on his man on defense. That said, he still brought many positives to this game, shooting 3-5 for 8 points with 8 boards in 21 minutes, and finishing +13, the highest of all the starters.

Timofey Mozgov, C16 MIN | 3-5 FG | 4-4 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 10 PTS | +1Mozgov played a short 16 minutes in this game, but he played fairly well when he was on the court. At 7’1″ he usually struggles more than it seems he should with rebounding. He did a good job on the glass in this game, however, and made 3 of his 5 shots. He didn’t make a huge impact in this game, but likewise he did no harm.

Ty Lawson, G28 MIN | 3-10 FG | 1-3 FT | 1 REB | 5 AST | 8 PTS | +5If the Nuggets were looking for leadership from Ty Lawson this preseason, he doesn’t seem to be delivering it on the court. In three preseason games, he’s averaged 28.3 minutes, 5 assists, 3.3 turnovers and 8 points per game with a .394 eFG% and .415 TS%. One could argue that it’s the preseason so it doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day this level of production falls far short of what Denver will need from him. It was fun to watch the horrible mismatch both ways when he and Stephen Curry were guarding each other, but Curry clearly got the best of it.

Anthony Randolph, F13 MIN | 3-8 FG | 1-1 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 7 PTS | -2It would be instructive if Karl would give Randolph a little more burn to see what he can really do with this team. He got just 13 minutes in this game, and zero in the last, but he remains one of the most intriguing players who’s battling for minutes. He may have been a little jumper-happy in this game, going 3-8 from the field (many from mid or long range) and 0-1 from the 3-point line. But his game seems fairly well rounded, including on the defensive end, and he has the potential to play a valuable role for this team.

Corey Brewer, F23 MIN | 3-9 FG | 7-10 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 15 PTS | +1About halfway through this game I was getting ready to call Brewer’s performance against the Spurs a clear fluke.He then apparently flipped a switch and ratcheted up his game, finishing with a team second 15 points, half of which came from the free throw line where he went 7-10. He shot 2-5 from the arc, a respectable 40 percent. I remain concerned, however, that a Nuggets universe in which Brewer attempts five 3-pointers per game may not be the most ideal possible. Still, he’s doing what they’re asking, and doing it well.

Kosta Koufos, C16 MIN | 3-6 FG | 0-2 FT | 13 REB | 1 AST | 6 PTS | 0If you only read his line for this game, it might be hard to understand why Koufos gets the A. He made three clutch plays in the final minute of the game (a block, an offensive rebound and putback, and another offensive rebound and putback) which sealed it. Granted, GSW had the deepest depths of their bench on the court by then. But Koufos was playing to win, and that will mean something to George Karl. He also was far and away the team’s best rebounder, pulling down 13 boards in 16 minutes, including 8 offensive that earned the Nuggets extra possessions. If Mozgov wants to know what making an impact in 16 minutes looks like, he should review Koufos’ film from this game.

JaVale McGee, C20 MIN | 4-12 FG | 1-2 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 9 PTS | +4Although McGee looked better in this game than the first two, he essentially continued forcing things on the offense and playing in a too frenetic, uncontrolled manner. The Nuggets coaching staff may need to bring Samuel L. Jackson in to tell him to “Calm the #*@& down!” At times he looks brilliant — rebounding his own missed free throw and putting back a little jumper from the paint for a 4-point play. But at other times… Well, he’s obviously just not quite there yet. I still have confidence in the Nuggets coaching staff to guide him towards realizing that untapped potential he so obviously has. But so far this preseason, he hasn’t shown us much of it.

Ben Uzoh, G20 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 3 AST | 2 PTS | +1Uzoh barely raises a ripple on this game’s stat sheet, but I thought he played surprisingly well, especially on the defensive end. If the Nuggets had a 16th roster spot I’d have no problem with taking a flier on him. He brings nothing to the table in terms of scoring, but he’s a competent distributor and he’s got good size for a point guard. Here he gets a B simply because expectations were set to zero and he basically didn’t screw anything up.

Jordan Hamilton, G18 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 11 PTS | +4I’m not sure why Karl limited Hamilton’s minutes in this game. He came in in the first half and quickly started demonstrating that he’s the one guy on the team with that natural long range shooting prowess. If it’s because Curry and Klay Thompson were on fire, well, they were on fire regardless of who was defending them. He at least drew a good charge against Curry. At any rate, I think those worrying about whether he gets minutes can rest easy. He clearly brings a skill set to the table that no other Nugget can, and that will make its own case.

Two Things We Saw

The Nuggets had seven blocks, but no player had more than one. Gallo, Mozgov, Brewer, Koufos, McGee, Uzoh and J-Ham all got into the mix.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson may be natural born scorers, and this may “only” be a preseason game, but this really was not what we wanted to see from the Nuggets perimeter defense. It’s this simple: If that doesn’t improve, Denver doesn’t go to the next level. This really needs to be addressed, and I think Iguodala needs to assume a more vocal defensive quarterback role. There’s still too much scrambling and slagging and confusion on the defensive end.

Kalen Deremo

Kalen was born in Durango, CO, in 1988 and graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2013 with a degree in journalism. He's now an itinerant hoping to travel as much as possible before eventually succumbing to the "real world." Aside from writing Kalen likes movies, music, spicy food and the great outdoors. Edward Abbey is his current idol.

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I’m sure everyone really respects you coming on here, offering nothing and being “first”. Next time do us a favor and be “last”. It’s actually much harder and takes more patience.

Neal

And you come on here, and offer nothing but being a grouchy a$$hat. Thanks for having a sense of humor. I was riding high last night after the epic comeback, and figured some other CO sports fans would be as well. Sorry my one sentence upset you so much.

mike

Well It really wasn’t funny so his response to your “comment” neither establishes nor diminishes the concept of Ernie having a sense of humor. Unless saying you are first is somehow funny (Without question it is NOT funny). In fact, His response, though harsh and negative, was funny. Furthermore, your indignation and angry response to his response would imply that YOU in fact do not have a sense of humor about yourself.

His comment also served the purpose of letting commentors know that middle school antics will be mocked here.

Neal

Wow guys, really? How hard is it to let a little comment go? And come on!…did you see that Broncos game!!!?? I guess you guys aren’t true CO sports fans.

And I think it’s your opinion that his comment was funny, and that mine somehow shows a lack of a sense of humor. In my opinion, both of your comments make you guys seem like you have something stuck up your…, cant take a joke, and take everything way too seriously. It was well after the game when I posted and there were no comments, so I figured that everyone was watching the donkeys like me, and, like me, we’re probably pretty excited about it.

Oh, and me and my “middle school” antics have been visiting this blog for quite some time. I didn’t realize you two were assigned to be the comment police.

CJP32

I havent had a chance to watch the replay of the game, but looking at the boxscore, is it possible that Iggy could lead this team in assists? He seems like the perfect compliment to Gallo/Ty. He has the ability to average 15/6/8 on this team.

Faried has disappointed so far, and Koufos is playing out of his mind. Maybe GK will be forced to make a change at the PF spot? Also McGee is frustrating, then exciting, then mind boggling.

Brewer has really taken this pre-season as a way of saying “I deserve to be here and I deserve minutes”. 55 points scored in just 66 minutes??? Shooting 60% FG, 50% 3PT and 23 FT attempts!! He is really making his case to be in the rotation.

I think Denver still have some tinkering to do, but boy they look good so far.

Legalize Denver Nuggets

The most important thing I saw is it looks like gallo has his swag back and can be a leader on the offensive end. That will be key. Also, I think koufos looks really solid. Rebound city and just a hardworking, serious heir about him. Seems leaner, stronger, and ready to make his presence known a bit more. But I’m liking to look of most of our bigs right now (except McGee who I don’t even want to talk about). I predict all of them will see time on the floor, but kofous earns the start and heavier mins because he has better hands than moz which is useful for the fast break and our pass happy offense, only shoots high percentage shots (not McGee), and offers more rebounding and defensive presence than Randolph. It’s nice to know each has a rather unique skill set that could be benificial depending on the match-up or what aspect of the game needs some momentum.
Uzoh showed some potential- I was impressed he could hang with nba ballers and d up solidly against them, but with stone he seems redundant. Given a year to develope his decision making on o, I think he will get his chances in the nba.

ryanvdonk

i think moz will see more minutes against the true big fellas (howard, bynum, jefferson). he really seems to play better when he’s banging around down low. his inconsistency of aggressiveness is probably most frustrating, because if he played like he does against the better centers then i think he’d take the starting spot, but way too often he’s almost invisible on the court when he should be a force on the glass and the defensive paint.

ryanvdonk

in contrast, javale seems to have the opposite problem, gets too excited and looses control. on offense this leads to poor footwork and forced shots. on defense he’ll just get too excited for the block and leave his man for an open look or uncontested rebound. he really just needs a personal coach to work with him and give him tips during games, tell him to calm down, think footwork, and throw it back out if he doesn’t have position.

Thomas

I just think it’s never going to happen for Gallo and Moz. We fans are an objective bunch, but do you think these guys are suddenly going to turn it on and be productive on both ends of the floor on a consistent basis?

For any player, in any sport, in order for you to have a shot of becoming a key team player you need to show improvement in certain areas of your game in the first 3,4 years of your career – or you need to be excellent in on specific area. Gallo and Moz have shown neither.

The problem is that their market value will reflect this very soon to a larger extent.

Legalize Denver nuggets

I agree and think Moz and gallo have probably reached a plateau of sorts. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them in a trade for the right guy, but I don’t know who that would be right now, and I think there is plenty of evaluation to be done between gallo and chandler before the deadline. I think where we disagree is where gallos plateau is. I think he’s an underrated defender, and when he’s healthy like he is now, he’s on of the few nuggets who can attack the rim and get to the line or be a 3 ball threat. (I’m not on the Hamilton bandwagon yet- he has a pretty stroke, but I’m not sold he’s a better shooter/desision maker than many of our other guys and he is certainly a worse defender than anyone else looking for his mins). I mean did you just forget how good gallo looked last season before his injury? The fact of the matter is no moves will be made until the trade deadline so lets just pray tah gawd gallo and chandler both stay healthy enough to get good value for whoever Masai wants to move. As of now, I give the edge to gallo remaining a nugget.

jake

I love how the new layout on the homepage comes through on my mobile. It’s all of a sudden centered. I hope that’s something you guys are helping the Nuggets achieve. I love Kosta, but I don’t think he can do it as our go to 5. JaVale has the upside to easily be the second best Center in the West… if he could just stay grounded and realize that seven foot dudes with strength and attitude are imposing enough, and then they can bring the shot to him that he will maliciously swat. He just rushes at every shot attempt. Play some D, dude.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to watch the broncos and the nuggets handle their business on the same night. And I’m so glad frontrowseats.eu (or whatever it is) exists, even if I couldn’t see half the opposing possessions because I had to watch the replay of our most recent score, and even if there was no score posted on the webcast. I don’t honestly know what our defense did at all. It is preseason, and it doesn’t I guess matter, but how do I get a feel for this mash up or that mash up in the lineup and how they performed, if I never see the defense or the score? Good thing we’re such a fast tempo team. The replay people know they can’t afford to replay our every play because they’d be missing the present fast break dunk.

I’ve seen Galo take some nasty looking charges this preseason. I saw him get up mad tonight, and hit some sweet shots from deep right after. I love him when he’s angry.

mike

Man you are in love with hamilton huh Thomas. The guy has talent and can shoot, but in fact he has shown you NOTHING to imply that his defense is even average because of effort issues (as opposed to Gallo who consistently has shown above average wing defense). Hamilton will need to harness his game and make it more team friendly or he will NEVER be anything beyond a 3rd/4th option wing. Its rare if not never happened that an American born player becomes an all star wing with scoring as his main skill and is picked outside the top 20 as Hamilton was. Currently the guy looks like a very talented hero baller in the JR smith/Jordan Crawford mold.

Thomas

Hamilton mistakes? Guy had one turnover and shot very well – what else do you want? Is that you blogging, George Karl?

Also, Faried was not dominated by Lee. +13 for Faried on 21 minutes, can’t ask for more.

Koufos should be the starter, bar none. Most people don’t like him, but his basketball IQ is miles ahead of Moz and Mcgee. You can’t teach that.

My biggest concern as usual is GK. He has no idea what to do with the material he has. He will tinker with line-ups the whole season and I know from experience that he will not get the best bodies to play starter minutes (30+). KK will play too little, Faried will play much too little for the game changer that he is (dude will win you games when he is on the floor just from his rebounding and hustle), Hamilton will play too little, Chandler too.

I know who will play too much – and it will cost us once again Andre, Gallo, Moz, Carter (oh no) and even…Iguodala – who will shoot too much considering the low percentage shooter he is.

We need a shooting guard to play a good amount of minutes (25+). The only guy capable of filling those shoes is Hamilton. Forget about Gallo, he is soft and will never develop into a night-in-night-out shooter (or defender). In order for Hamilton to get those minutes, Iguodala has to play some small forward (rounded by bigs who can rebound, like Faried and KK).

The only way to avoid Karl playing his favorite players too much (Fournier is European, so he automatically falls in that category as Karl is infatuated with Europeans players) is to (1) either get rid of Karl, or (2) get rid of the players he is in love with.

I think Masai sees this problem and that is why he shipped Harrington out of town. I am hoping he follows through this season and ships Gallo and hopefully Miller out of town.

Gallo has reached his potential and the verdict on Miller is clear for anyone who follows both ends of the floor and cares to look at his career stats – the good things he brings to the table are not enough to offset the bad ones.

dynamo.joe

Anyone who sees Kosta Koufos 16 min/13 Reb and doesn’t understand why he gets an ‘A’ should be banned from the site.

bayesk

W

jim

game 3, preseason, y’all. it’s going to be ok. mcgee issues getting you down? two words: andre miler. keep starting k2. second unit with dre and pierre. pepper with moz and ar.

losing aaa and big al is kind of a big deal to work through. lot of leadership there. folks need to find their roles again. i think ty and ai will work it out. three preseason games with weird rotations is maybe not enough time? i like to see them playing to win right now, though.

i’m borrowing trouble, but what is wilson chandler’s eta? that seems bigger deal for team chemistry with the brutal opening schedule.

amlowlife

I agree with your concerns about McGee. He looks totally lost. My guess is he has too much going on in that head of his–he’s thinking too much.

He’s got the Hakeem stuff he wants to do and he probably has a bunch more Karl is heaping on him and I would bet he’s overwhelmed mentally.

I think the coaches are going to have to have him focus on just a few things until he does them right and then build on them.

I don’t think he’s a Rhodes Scholar type and he’s showing signs of being several steps past the point where he understood what is going on.

slugdugg

McGee seriously should have had an F. Even without ANY expectations or new contract, he played like a rookie JC baller who was freaked out to even be in the game. He really needs some “back-to-basics” come-to-jesus talk from the coaching staff. Even though it is preseason these have still been 3 games where McGee has shown absolutely zero basketball IQ.

I’m sure everyone on the staff is concerned. If McGee plays like this to start the season we all know GK will bench him, and who knows how McGee will react to that.

KW

I really think we’ve got a bunch of knuckleheads from GK on down.

I liked the McGee trade as I was sick of Nene being soft in the 4th Q but jeez, what have we done?

I haven’t seen any of these games but the stat lines really shows me that we’ve still got a bunch of boys on the team. If one or three of them doesn’t step up it could be a long season.

I am not hopeful and I think this season is going to be important. We might not see this group together next season (which may be a good thing).

parkhill

I’m glad the J Ham hype is taken a back seat to a better defender and all around player in Brewer.

I think McGee’s work with the dream has brought more confusion than anything else at this point. It takes time to get over old habits and incorporate new ones. I think we need to play the center position by committee, always did.

CJP32

This mornings news of Wilson suffering another set back and will now miss the Portland game has me wondering if more surgery is required. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it seems his rehab/recovery is taking too long, or maybe they rushed him back too soon?

Ty will also miss the Blazers game due to elbow soreness and Andre Miller is expected to start at PG. This should allow us to see some Dre/McGee action.

Koufos is by far the better option at the Starting C position – his rebounding is superior. I agree that Mozzy is better suited against the bigger centres in the league, and until McGee becomes more comfortable with his own abilities, he should come off the bench still.

Iggy’s shooting form so far has been below average – 1/10 on threes and 37% FG overall. However he makes up for it in his play making abilities and defense.

There is also ‘talk’ that Ty was not happy with the rumoured 44/4 contract extension, some believe that he will wait until free agency begins. I think he is allowed to test the FA waters, but at the same time, it could force Masai to trade him in case we lose him for nothing.

EWilson

I suspect McGee’s problem is a combination of trying to live up to his new contract AND incorporate whatever he learned at Hakeem’s camp. Instead of just playing, he’s trying too hard AND thinking too much. For a player who had mental questions coming in, that’s a heavy load.

I think the coaching staff needs to tell him to focus on defense and rebounding and let Miller get him a few lobs to get him into the scheme of things on offense. As the season goes along, I’m pretty sure he’ll settle down and contribute, though it might not seem enough to justify his contract. But, let’s not give up on him after 3 pre-season games.

Denver4ever

Seven Blocks from Seven Nuggets!!!! Good sign that the D’ has improved. Hope Iggy and Ty turns on the gas pedal this season to prove that GSW’s hot-shooting was a fluke

Erlingur

Just popped over to the Forum Blue and Gold (for science), and man, are people irritated right now. It’s just the preseason, true, but Laker fans are getting outright angry about everyone’s (except Kobe’s) total lack of investment or effort so far. Here on the Nugs we have 16 guys (hey, Ben Uzoh isn’t going to go down without a fight) all scrambling for a spot in the pecking order, while the Lakers seem to already be content with standing by and watching their big 4 drag them all the way. We might be an underdog in this fight, but I’d never swap our Nuggets spirit for the apathy around the Lakers right now.

Ryan

It’s getting pretty annoying – every time I see and start to read one of Kalen’s posts – inevitably at some point Joel or denbutsu or whatever always hijacks the post and takes it over with commentary that does nothing more than bore the crap outta me. Joel you obviously are a smart guy who knows what he is talking about but your analysis gets so deep sometimes that I don’t even like to read your posts anymore. I much prefer reading Kalen’s posts without your input. If you have something to say then make your own post so I can see it was you who wrote it and proceed to skip over it. But honestly let Kalen do his own writing. I swear to god the next time I see you come in on someone else’s post will be the last time I visit this page. It’s getting really annoying. You don’t have to have the final word on everything. Thanks.

Ryan’s Dad

Ryan I loved your personal rant against Joel/denbutsu. Except he didn’t write anything on this page as far as I can see. And it was extremely whiney and puerile of you to make a WHOLE post about a guy adding comments that are well thought out but cause you to think too much. I swear to god if I ever see you writing to someone complaining about how they interrupt your dim thoughts with in depth thoughts I am going to stop reading your comments Ryan.

Actually Ryan it is annoying to hear people whine about comments that don’t even exist or about somebody giving time to write thoughtfully. How about you just not read his comments Ryan and then be quiet? Also son, do your chores.

https://twitter.com/denbutsu Joel

We had a bit of a miscommunication, and Kalen and I were both writing up the game at the same time unbeknownst to each other. I actually did post a separate post, not having seen his, but when I saw Kalen had beaten me to the punch I deleted it and pasted it at the bottom of his, because we really don’t need two separate posts for one preseason game recap.

If you don’t like my writing, well, what can I say? Skip over my stuff and focus on the other three guys. I am relatively new at this, so I hope I can keep improving. But I won’t apologize for getting “so deep” in my analysis, even if it bores you. That’s what I was doing at my own blog when they invited me to be a contributor here, and that’s what I’ll keep doing.

Oh, and when one of us adds additional comments to anther’s post, it’s not “hijacking” it or preventing any of the other writers from having their say. It’s just adding one more perspective, which is kind of the point of having more than one writer here. But for what it’s worth, I do think we’ll probably have just one of us doing a recap for most games.

GIANLUCA

Gallinari si good starter 4 denver , with igoudala defense and offense ….
why MCCALEBB don’t play in NBA ? why PIANIGIANI ( italy and fenerbahce coach , in the legend of europe , 40 years old ) don’t coaching in Nba ? ..
i think it from 3 years

jahock20

I like reading your posts and have been following them for some time, it is great to catch up on the Nugs and hear about all the games. I enjoy the depth of the conversation about the game and the details about each players performance. However, I feel like we are being extremely critical of the players for it being their first three preseason games, especially when they are 3-0. It seems the only player that gets any love is Kosta. I love Kosta but in terms of talent I don’t think he will be our primary center this season. Manimal will come through I think it is too early to be demanding so this early in the season. Igoudala, Gallo, Farried, and Lawson will be our play makers and leaders on the court, as well as the closest thing we are going to come as far as all-star talent. The Nugs will be very good this year and continue their normal patterns of high scoring, solid defense, and their ability to run the fast break with Ty Lawson and Gallo leading the way.